Notes for Tomorrow is an exhibition conceived by ICI, featuring artworks selected by curators from around the world to reflect on a new global reality ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this cultural moment of transition, each work is a source of inspiration from the recent past and a guiding perspective for the future.
Many of the artworks in the exhibition address spirituality as a grounding mechanism, sharing ways to make sense of the world when so much is in doubt. Some engage with specific mythology, while others reveal political structures that may or may not still be standing. The formation of monuments is questioned, and their removal is all but certain. The exhibition addresses art’s potential in the construction of collective memory in a global era. We learn the importance of sustaining and sharing different forms of knowledge, prompting us to re-imagine our conceptions of the future.
Notes for Tomorrow was curated from selections by alumni of ICI’s Curatorial Intensive, a professional development program founded in 2010 on principles of international exchange, inclusivity, and knowledge-sharing. With the ever-present backdrop of a global pandemic, ICI turned to these curators to question and reassess values and relevance in contemporary culture, and asked each of them to share an artwork they believe is vital to be seen today.
For Notes for Tomorrow, the traveling exhibition format has been recalibrated to encourage international collaboration and versatile modes of presentation. The exhibition will travel digitally to museums, university galleries, and independent art spaces for artworks to be produced at every site, responding to the local context. Each iteration will engage audiences with video, photography, installations, murals, and scores within the gallery space, outside, and online.
Artists: Madiha Aijaz, Ernesto Bautista, Maeve Brennan, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Luke Luokun Cheng, A Liberated Library for Education, Inspiration, and Action, Nothando Chiwanga, Shezad Dawood, Demian DinéYazhi’, Cao Guimarães, Ilana Harris-Babou, Rei Hayama, Amrita Hepi, INVASORIX, Tamás Kaszás, Ali Kazma, David Lozano, Mona Marzouk, Joiri Minaya, Peter Morin, Omehen, Daniela Ortiz, Kristina Kay Robinson, Luiz Roque, Mark Salvatus, Ibrahima Thiam, u/n multitude, Wayne Kaumualii Westlake, and Yan Shi
Notes for Tomorrow is a traveling exhibition organized and produced by Independent Curators International (ICI) and initiated by Frances Wu Giarratano, Becky Nahom, Renaud Proch, and Monica Terrero. The exhibition was made possible with the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, VIA Art Fund, and ICI’s Board of Trustees and International Forum.
